Sports Spotlight: Turchin powers his way in crossfit

by
Darren Ding - 2016-04-27

Credit

Image 1 of 1

Caption

﻿At age 18, Chadwick senior Coulter Turchin has an ambitious dream of qualifying for the national CrossFit Games in 2020.

Growing up in Aspen, Colo., Turchin skiied and played football and lacrosse. He began crossfitting at age 12 with his dad, and was immediately interested in the sport. Later, after moving to California, Turchin really developed his love for crossfit.

“When I first moved to California, I started playing football again and realized that I just didn’t love it as much as I did back in Colorado,” Turchin said. “I started spending two hours a day in the gym multiple times a week just getting stronger, and loved the variety in the workouts. My coaches at CrossFit South Bay are amazing and took great care of me. That’s when I started to focus on crossfit as my sport.”

Turchin has competed in many crossfit events with plenty of great athletes. Two of his most valued achievements are being one of the youngest athletes ever to be drafted into the National Pro Grid League (NPGL), and being one of the youngest to complete a military-style training program.

“I was drafted into the professional fitness league at 17,” Turchin said. “I completed a military-style training camp at 16, and I think I was the youngest person to ever do that.”

Turchin now competes with the Boston Iron, one of eight teams in the NPGL, and works hard to accomplish his goals. Turchin works out with older and bigger men every day, which helps keep him extremely motivated.

“When I find a competition, I just want to be adequately prepared and be able to maximize my performance in terms of the weeks leading up, so I can perform well in the competitions,” Turchin said. “I’ve set short-term goals to keep improving every year until eventually I get to the spot to make it to the Games, and potentially win the Games.”

Turchin works out at the gym in Torrance for about three hours a day, five days a week. Crossfit is still challenging after years of training his body, but “that’s what makes it worthwhile. If it were easy for me it wouldn’t be as enjoyable because you wouldn’t get as much out of it. If you’re doing it right, you are usually in a whole lot of pain.

“When you finish, you feel accomplished. You feel like you’ve done something, and for me that’s just a good feeling to have knowing that throughout every single day, I know that I’ve accomplished that minor goal.”

Turchin has been forced to better manage his time in general after high school academics started taking away from his crossfit training program.

“It’s just something you get used to, you know, figuring out scheduling, when I need to be at the gym, when I need to eat, when I need to come home and do my homework,” he said.

“It makes you very aware of your time and your surroundings, and being efficient and just getting everything done so that everything gets done in a timely manner and you can focus 100% of your energy into both, while being able to maintain the other as well.”

After all of his training and challenges inside the gym, Turchin’s love for the sport will always be the strongest driving force of his crossfit career.

“What’s really cool about what I do is getting to do it with people who are my friends and people who I’ve gotten to know over the years,” Turchin said.

“When someone gets a PR [personal record], it’s inspiring just to see their progress and incorporating it into your own training.

“It just brings good energy and good feelings to the gym to see that everyone’s working hard and getting the results they’re intending to get.”